In many commercial or residential facilities, electrical conductors are typically encased in various types of conduits or tubing. The conduit is often corrugated and constructed so that it may be easily bent or curved to facilitate selective directional positioning of the electrical conductors and the conduit as required in the course of installation.
In systems of the type described which include electrical boxes and externally corrugated conduits in which the electrical conductors are enclosed, a means of connecting the conduit to the box is required. Many attempts have been made in the past to provide connectors for this type of corrugated conduit; however, they have several disadvantages. For one thing, steel electrical boxes are preferred in the industry, but some of the prior connectors are not flexible and/or resilient enough to be inserted into steel electrical boxes and can only be used when inserted into plastic boxes. Second, some of the prior devices do not protect the conductors from scraping against the electric box. Finally, many of these prior electrical corrugated conduit connectors do not provide for simple and quick connection of the conduit within the connector.
Examples of these prior connectors are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,420,826 to Irrgang; 2,952,730 to Simonds; 4,248,459 to Pale et al; 4,302,035 to Ochwat; 4,494,779 to Neff et al; 4,578,528 to Borsh et al; 4,616,105 to Borsh; 4,711,474 to Schnell; and 4,864,080 to Fochler et al.
Thus, there is a continuing need to provide improved non-metallic electrical conduit connectors.